This Is The Life
by rhia xo
Summary: The last in the trilogy of Troy & Gabriella's life. Prequel to Anywhere But Here, Sequel to Where I Belong. ONE SHOT - YEARS LATER. TROYELLA, ZEKEPAY, CHAYLOR, RYAN&OC! Story better than summary x READ ABH & WIB FIRST! x


**Okay so finally, the long waited sequel to Where I Belong! I'm so sorry that it took months for me to upload it, but I really had no idea where to go with it. I'm not entirely happy with it now - but I didn't want to delay it any longer. It's kinda just a one shot to find out what's happening now with the characters etc, it's not the kinda one shot where big drama happens.**

**I thought it would just be nice, considering I kinda left Where I Belong on an open ending. Story alert this story too - as I might add to it in the future - who knows?**

**I hope you like it, and REVIEW! I really want to find out what you thought of this one shot - thanks guys, your awesome, and I'd just like to thank you for following this story to the end, from Anywhere But Here, to Where I Belong, and to this one shot, or whatever many shots.**

**Your all amazing, and don't forget to check out my other stories xx.**

**Rhia xx**

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**This Is The Life**

"_Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the one, the only, The Annual Troy vs. Chad basketball match!" Ryan said in an announcer tone, as Chad and Troy shook hands, moments before the game began._

"_And a special surprise twist tonight, if Chad wins – Troy and Gabriella have to name their next son, Chad!" Ryan said excitedly. _

"_I thought I told you all I'm not agreeing to it!" Gabriella shouted from the sidelines. Beside her was six year olds, Imogen and Jared, both wearing tops with number 14 on them, then Gabriella's third child, four year old Ally, (short for Alice) who was holding a poster which said, 'GO DADDY' on it. _

"_What!? Oh common Gabs your no fun!" Chad cried, all set on having their next son named after him._

"_Sorry Chad, but don't you think it would get a bit confusing?" Gabriella asked, trying to think of the kindest excuse possible._

"_..You do have a point. How about middle name? If I win his middle name has to be Chad?" He suggested._

_  
"Okay that I might be able to deal with." Gabriella nodded, then stepped back a little bit as Ryan blew the whistle._

_--_

"_I thought you would have won!" Gabriella cried after the game, as she drove a tired Troy home, along with the children._

"_Me too – but Chad has got better, chasing Rory around all the time." Rory was Chad and Taylor's very energetic three year old boy._

"_Okay, so we just better hope we have a girl the next time – so then we can get out of this bet."_

_--_

One year later from that game.

"Oh look who it is! Dominic Chad Bolton!" Chad said happily, running up to the three month year old baby.

"I can't believe you had a boy." Troy muttered as Chad picked Dominic up. He never called him 'Dom' or even 'Dominic' it was always the full name.

"Hey, don't blame me – part of this is your fault." Gabriella laughed, quite amused.

"Well, of course I am happy you had a boy, we could always do with some more mini Troy's – but now he has a bit of Chad in him, with the name and all.." Troy said, obviously worried that a bit of Chad would rub off onto his youngest son.

"Chad, how about you go see the others? Their in the playroom." Gabriella said gently.

"But me and Dominic Chad Bolton are having some bonding time!" He moaned.

"But Chad, you haven't paid any attention to the others since he was born.." Troy said, hoping Chad would see his point.

"Oh yeah, I guess your right. Wouldn't want them feeling left out now would we?" He said smiling, put Dom back into his playpen then rushed out of the room, in search for the rest of the Bolton family.

After about five minutes, Taylor came downstairs and entered the living room, where Troy and Gabriella were.

"Remind me not to have anymore children – he is worse than them. He nearly just had an argument with Jared about his DS." Taylor sighed, but smiled. As much as she thought Chad acted younger than all the children, she still loved him more and more each day.

"Well that's Chad for you." Troy shrugged. "At least he keeps them occupied."

"He does that for sure. So how's Dominic, we all know the first months are some of the hardest." Taylor asked, sitting down on the sofa next to the playpen, and making faces at him, which was very entertaining in Dominic's opinion.

"He's actually really good, not sure how long that will last. Alice was good for the first four months then the trauma began. Luckily it only lasted a few months." Gabriella laughed.

"Yeah, I remember Rory – he'd sleep all night as Chad would ware him out, always playing with him while Tallulah was in school. So Chad is useful in some ways." She smirked.

As if he knew they were talking about him, Chad walked down with Ally beside him.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Troy asked, sitting up.

"Uncle Chad said you'll play basketball." Ally said, beaming.

"Sure – but no more name bets Chad, can never be too safe." Troy warned him, then got up and followed the two of them out into the large garden, where Imogen and Jared were waiting.

"I bet I could beat you with Imogen and Alice on my team." Troy challenged.

--

"Mom I want to be a fairy!" Imogen told her mother excitedly, as they walked around the mall trying to find a good Halloween costume.

"Why don't you want to be anything scary like your brother? It's Halloween!" Gabriella tried to persuade her oldest daughter, but she wasn't budging.

"Fine, I bet Ally will want to be something scary, huh?" Gabriella said, turning to her youngest daughter.

"No mommy I want to go as a butterfly." She giggled.

"A butterfly? You do know Halloween is supposed to be scary?"

"I could be a dead butterfly?" She suggested.

"Yeah I still don't think you get the point.. We'll just stick with a normal butterfly." Gabriella told her as the four of them walked into the nearest store. As Gabriella began fishing through clothes she noticed three people dressed in pink from the corner of the eye.

"Hey guys – look there's Auntie Sharpay!" Gabriella said, then walked them over to Sharpay and her six year old daughter Brooke, and her three year old Cassie.

"Oh hey Gabi! Doesn't she look great!?" Sharpay asked proudly, looking down at Brooke who was dressed in head to toe in pink. Gabriella looked at her, then figured out she was supposed to be a princess.

"Sharpay, it's Halloween – you know supposed to be scary?" Gabriella told her. Didn't anybody get the point of it anymore?!

"I know, but I didn't want them dressed up in white makeup with fake blood dripping from their mouths – even if Zeke did." Sharpay shrugged, then picked up a little halo hair band and put it on Cassie.

"She wants to be an angel." She added. "What about you guys? What are you dressing up as?!" She asked, kneeling down to their height.

"I'm going as a fairy!" Imogen said happily as Sharpay nodded in approval.

"I'm going as a butterfly."

"Very cute. What about you Jared?"

"I'm going to be a vampire! Mom's been making me my cloak already!" He grinned as Gabriella looked down at him proudly – at least one of her children actually got Halloween.

"Sound's good." Sharpay told him, but was obvious not that impressed that he was going as something traditional. "So how are things?" She asked, turning to Gabriella.

"Oh great, just bought Casey's birthday present. Well technically it's for all of us." Gabriella told her.

"Really? What did you buy her?"

"A spa day out, all massages and that included - but I got it for me you Casey and Taylor." Gabriella grinned. "Figured Casey would be lonely if I just bought her one for herself."

"Clever. Well I better head off, Zeke's taking us all out for dinner tonight to celebrate Brooke getting the main part in her ballet show. I'll see you tomorrow at the party, right?"

--

"We are so late." Gabriella said as she sat in the car with Troy. They were on their way to Casey's birthday party which was being held at her house. "They are going to kill us."

"Look just ring them and tell them were running a bit late, and we'll be there in about five minutes." Troy told her, handing her his phone.

"Five minutes!? Hunny were about twenty minutes away now, forgetting the traffic." She told him, but dialled Ryan's number all the same. "Ryan?"

"Oh hey Gabi. It's Chad."

"What are you doing with Ryan's phone..?" She asked.

"Well me and Taylor were in charge of getting the cake, right? Well Taylor told me to put it in the kitchen, but I accidently left it on the table, leaning against the radiator.. I think you can kinda guess that the cakes kinda melted.. Anyway Ryan's not happy and just handed me his phone while he tried to sort it out." Chad told her.

"All this has already happened? Were only half an hour late!?" Gabriella asked, then realized this was Chad they were talking about. He could ruin a party within five minutes if he really wanted too.

"Yeah, anyway where are you? Casey's been looking around for you ever since Sharpay told her you'd gotten her a really good present."

Gabriella laughed. "Were stuck in traffic, if you see her tell her were really sorry and we'll be there as soon as we can."

Twenty minutes later, and Troy and Gabriella had finally arrived. As they walked into the house, they were greeted by various friends. The two of them carried on walking through the hallway until they reached the kitchen.

"Troy, Gabi!" Casey exclaimed and then rushed over to hug them both. "Thanks for coming!" Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Gabriella. "I heard you brought a great gift?"

Gabriella laughed then nodded. "Happy Birthday!" She said happily, then handed her an envelope with a card inside. Casey took the envelope off her and raised her eyebrows at it, obviously expecting something huge. "Just open it." Gabi told her.

Casey ripped it open, and opened the card, revealing a voucher for a all inclusive spa day. "Oh my god! Sharpay was right - this is amazing!"

"I thought you'd like it." Gabriella grinned, then took the glass of champagne that Troy was holding out for her.

"Thank you!" Casey grinned then hugged the two of them once more, then left the kitchen to entertain some more guests.

"Oh hey guys!" Chad said, as he walked into the kitchen with Taylor and Ryan.

"How's the cake situation?" Gabriella asked.

"Well the cake melted, then Chad had this crazy idea to try and freeze it - so we did, so then when we took it out, it was a flat cake, or just icing - with bits of ice on it." Ryan said, clearly annoyed.

"Hey - I thought it would work!" Chad defended.

"So what are you guys gunna do now?" Troy asked.

"Well I've just called up the bakery Chad had the first cake from, and they told me they have a cake available at the store that I can go and pick up now." Ryan told them.

"You should leave now." Taylor said, looking at her watch. "We'll keep her occupied while your gone."

"Okay - I should be back in about fifteen minutes!"

--

"Where's Ryan?" Casey asked as Gabriella and Troy sat on the sofa, chatting to one an another. Ryan had been gone at least half an hour now, and nobody could get hold of him.

"Oh he's in, the uh bathroom." Troy told her.

"He is? I've hardly seen him all night - if you see him, tell him I'm looking for him."

"You got it." Gabriella smiled, then sighed of relief once Casey had taken off again. "Where is he?" She hissed to Sharpay, who was sitting beside her.

"I have no idea. Maybe he's caught in traffic or-"

"Ryan!" Troy cried, quickly standing up. "What took you so long man?"

"We had a bit of a problem with the new cake, come on I'll show you." He motioned for everyone to follow him out of the room. Once they were all in the kitchen, and had checked Casey was out of sight - he opened the cake box.

"What the hell!?" Zeke cried, looking down at the cake.

"Okay, so this is the only cake they had available at this time. A man had cancelled his order earlier this evening, so the cake was free to go."

"Who are these people?" Taylor asked, looking at the picture that was on the cake, of about ten girls in bikinis.

"I have no idea. Apparently their some girls that the man had met on holiday, but yeah this was the only cake they had on such a sort notice." Ryan shrugged.

"Then I guess it will have to do.." Gabriella said, her voice trailing off as she knew this wouldn't go down well.

--

"You have to admit, it was pretty funny when she saw those girls on the cake - her face was like." Troy pulled an emotionless, confused face at Gabriella, who burst out laughing, the next morning.

"Well at least after she found out what Chad had done, she laughed. Anyway are you ready?" Gabriella asked, picking up Dominic.

"Yeah, let's go." Troy got up and followed her out of the living room then stood at the bottom of the stairs. "Kids, were leaving now!" He called up. Shortly after, their three children came downstairs, one by one.

"Dad can we play football again?" Jared asked, putting his jacket on.

"Sure thing. Ally come here, your coats inside out." He laughed, then helped his youngest daughter put it on the right way round.

"Thanks daddy." She told him sweetly, then followed her mom and siblings out of the door, with Troy closely behind her. Once everyone was strapped into the car safely, the Bolton family set off for the park. Thirty minutes later, and the family had just arrived at 'their spot' under the tree, where they came once a month usually.

"Mom can you pass the football, its in the bag." Jared asked.

"Here we go." Gabriella threw the ball gently at Jared, who caught it then jogged off with Troy and started a little one on one game.

"Mommy, how long have you loved daddy?" Imogen asked, sitting down on the blue blanket.

Gabriella smiled. "Since I was sixteen sweetie. When we both lived back in New Mexico, we met at a ski resort though."

"Did daddy love you too then?"

"Yeah, I think he did." She told her seven year old daughter. "One day you'll know what love feels like, you'll find your own prince charming. Well after he's got your dads approval." She laughed.

Gabriella sat back and watched as Imogen got up and went to sit by Alice, who was picking daisies from the grass, and lying them all up. She looked up over the park, where Troy was currently chasing Jared around, and then looked to the left of her, to see Dominic, strapped up in a his baby carrier, amusing himself by waving his hands.

This was her life now. This is her life now. Her beautiful family, and her amazing friends.

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**I thought it was pretty ironic to start Where I Belong in this park, and to end the trilogy at the same park.**

**REVIEW!**


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